21 Maine Zumba Prostitute Customer Names Are released

For those who might have missed it, authorities in Kennebunk, Maine, recently busted the town's Zumba instructor, Alexis Wright, and her business partner, Mark Strong, on charges relating to Wright's alleged side job as the town prostitute. Making matter more interesting is the fact that Wright and Strong kept records and videos of Wright's interaction with her customers sufficient to allow the police to identify over a hundred of them, with rumors going around that many are well-known townsmen, including politicians, doctors, lawyers, police officers, fire fighters, and even a local TV personality. Many of those men are now being charged as well, and this sparked a quick round of court challenges by an attorney for two of them who fought to keep their names secret even as they were criminally charged.

Well our founding fathers had a problem with secret trials, which is why such matters surrounding criminal cases are public, so I've been watching this one as the attorney, Stephen Schwartz, did his best to convince the courts that his clients and others being charged were somehow "victims of the crime of invasion of privacy".

Really Stephen? That was the best you could come up with? Wow.

Well not surprisingly, that didn't work, and yesterday the judges released the names of the first twenty-one "johns" being charged. The men charged this week include:

Gary Bahlkow, Jens Bergen, Norman Crepeau, Joseph Cuetara, Kenneth Fairbanks, Donald Hill, Monie Hobbs, David Kline, Robert Labonte, Dale Madore, Paul Main, Harry McMann, Kevin Pagliccia, Claude Palmer, Philip Parker, Colin Powers, Clinton Ray, James Soule, John Verreault, James White and Peter Wormell Sr.

Police said they plan to release the names of other individuals charged in the case in “batches” as they become available. The process, they said, could take months.

I had no real reason for re-posting the names other than it amused me to watch this play out and see such a pathetic legal argument crash and burn. Personally I can't find a reason to argue for keeping such commercial activities between two consenting adults illegal, but since it is illegal today and these guys all knew it when they rolled the dice (and allegedly Alexis Wright), I don't have a lot of sympathy for them.